Leiden, the Netherlands, January 7, 2013 – ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on rationally designed therapeutic vaccines against cancer and persistent viral infections, has today announced that it has raised EUR 8 million in a follow-on round from its existing investor base.
The proceeds will be used to fund a randomized Phase II clinical trial in cervical cancer with ISA’s lead program ISA-HPV, a therapeutic vaccine for pre-malignant diseases and cancers induced by human papilloma virus (HPV). Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide and is caused by HPV infection. The company has already demonstrated clinical efficacy of its HPV vaccine in a Phase II study in Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia.
ISA’s vaccines are based on its proprietary synthetic long peptide (SLP®) vaccine platform. The company is currently advancing existing and new programs based on its SLP® vaccine platform in a number of cancers, including cervical carcinoma, as well as its groundbreaking proprietary toll-like receptor (TLR) ligand adjuvant technology.
Gerard Platenburg, Managing Director of ISA Pharmaceuticals, commented: ”The successful funding enables us to boost the further clinical development of our synthetic vaccine pipeline and our unique proprietary TLR adjuvant technology. With a total of EUR 20 million in private equity funding and the same amount from public grants, we have matured into a biotech company with a robust and clinically validated product pipeline and a leading-edge therapeutic vaccine platform.”
